Grand Duchy of Hesse

The Grand Duchy of Hesse, also called Hesse-Darmstadt to distinguish it from its neighbor, was a German state formed in 1806 as part of Napoleon I's Confederation of the Rhine to fight with him in during his wars. The country continued to exist and became a member state of the North German Federation, and consisted of three main provinces: Darmstadt (the capital), Giessen, and Mainz. It had a total population of 804,380 people (including 201,090 able-bodied adults) as of 1836, of which about 80% were literate and the majority (76.4%) were Protestant, while the other 23.4% were Catholic. It was an absolute monarchy with the National Party of Hesse-Darmstadt being the ruling party, and other parties in the parliament included the Liberal Democratic Party and Conservative Party.